The West Coast has a rich community of rope bondage
riggers, artists, enthusiasts and pigs- and yet we haven't had a chance to trade
skills with one another or pass on our skills to those who have yet to develop
their passions with rope bondage to their fullest. Thus, I am bringing
together some of my favorite bondage artists and riggers from Seattle, Portland,
Eugene, San Francisco and Los Angeles for just that- to share their skills, help
you develop yours, and build community.

Because this event is about skill-building for both rope
bondage artists and individuals who like to be bound, this event will be limited
to 50 attendees for the Saturday and Sunday classes. Friday's class with
Midori is a separate ticket item for those who want to just come hear this
amazing individual do what she does best- get us all geared up and energized
about rope bondage! The social on Friday night is free because there are
more than 50 bondage enthusiasts here on the West Coast and there should be a
chance for us to just have a few hours to share tales, tricks, and flirt!
Saturday's party (part of the weekend ticket or party-only ticket) is a great
opportunity for everyone who did not get in to the limited attendance event (or
had to work on the weekend) will be a great opportunity for everyone to dress to
impress or dress to play hard- your choice!

These events are all about rope bondage, sharing our
passions, playing hard, finding our own voices as players and artists, being
true to ourselves, and making new connections of all sorts. Come, learn,
play, and have fun. Ages 18 and over only. All genders,
orientations, and group sizes (from solo to tribe) welcome.

When we sell out, we sell out. Sign up now for your
chance to learn and play with some truly skilled rope artists and
enthusiasts.

5 weekend scholarships have been given at this time.
BodyBound party-only scholarships are still available... and weekend
scholarships will only be considered if one of the 5 scholarships granted are
not used *or* in unusual circumstances- send your
"scholarship" application to RopeLover@RopeLover.com
with "BodyBound Scholarship" in the subject line. These are for
starving artists, students, fixed income individuals, and other similar
individuals only.

Hotel, Travel and Food Information:

Food anyone? While BodyBound will be providing basic
beverage options, moderate snacks (catered, not cheetos and red vines), etc...
perhaps you want something more? Across the street in one direction is The
Trap, a dive bar with really yummy omelets. Across the street in the other
direction is Devil's Point, a great bar with a lunch menu and Inky hot goth girl
strippers. Next door is a taqueria with greasy food that is very
filling. Down the street (within 3 blocks) we have Subway sandwiches, Taco
Bell, KFC, 2 coffee or bubble tea places, an adult toy store (for condoms- okay,
not food), a Thai grocery store, and a few other places.

Venom Studios is located on 52nd and SE Foster. The
nearest hotel is the Motel
6, located at 31st and SE Powell, 21 blocks from Venom. The #9 bus
runs in front of the Motel 6 and stops at 50th and Powell, 2 blocks from Venom
(Powell and Foster split at 50th). This bus
runs every 15 minutes until 1am... or is a 5 minute drive by car. Near
Motel 6 is a wide variety of food, strip club, and grocery store options... it
is also walking distance to Ace
of Hearts, Portland's biggest swingers club. However, you get what you
pay for (usually $40US a night), so the Motel 6 is a place to crash and play,
but not amazing for much else.

Sooo... for the rest of you who want something nicer, I'd
like to suggest Marriott Portland.
We were unable to get a conference rate (the national branch said yes, the
locals said we were an adult event so no), but $99 a night is still great for
the amenities they offer, plus being walking distance to everything beautiful
Downtown Portland has to offer, from clubs to world-class food, shopping and
walks on the waterfront. The Marriott is only a 12 block walk to Powell's,
the largest bookstore in the world. To get to Venom from the Marriott,
there are a few options. First is to drive- cross the water on the Ross
Island Bridge, head up Powell 50 blocks, turn onto Foster and park wherever you
can find parking. Second is bus- Walk 2-3 blocks up to 5th & Stark,
board the #14 bus (runs
every 15 minutes until 1am) and get off RIGHT in front of Venom, *or* catch the
#9 bus from the same stop and follow the directions above. The 14 will
take you through Hawthorne, one of Portland's hippest shopping and dining
districts in the city. The 9 takes you up Powell, which passes a lot of
food options as well. Both routes take 25-30 minutes to get from 5th &
Stark to Venom. Driving from Downtown takes 10-15 minutes depending on
traffic.

Coming straight to Venom from the Train, Bus or Airport?
Tri-Met, Portland's public
transit system, can get you here. Cabs are available in Portland, but are
*not* available to randomly wave down unless you are at the Airport, Train
station, or some parts of downtown- and also can be a bit pricey. Also,
once you register for the event, you'll be invited to join the Yahoo group for
the event- where if folks want to carpool, they should. Parking near Venom
is challenging at times- do not park right in front as it is 1 hour parking- try
parking behind Devil's Point, on side streets, etc.

Brandon, aka "Boss", has been involved in the local BDSM
community for close to eight years. For nearly three years he has
run Diablo's
Fetish Night, a monthly BDSM focused fetish affair. He teaches
a workshop on a different topic before each event. Boss is also
one of the organizers for Leatherwoods,
Oregon's only outdoor BDSM event, situated on 140 acres of private
property. He is the dungeon master and is responsible for the
dungeon areas and DM training. Born from his love of hemp
bondage rope, he started BossBondage.com,
where he produces westernized shibari rope in a multitude of sizes and
colors. Also, being a licensed body piercer has led him to operate
PlayPiercingKits.com,
which sells play piercing kits and accessories. Boss does not get
too tied down to titles and just considers himself to be a bondage
artist. In the last several years, through intensive
performance of bondage, in particular suspensions, he has developed a
unique style. He is primarily self taught and combines western and Asian
bondage styles.

DaddyDavid, who currently lives in Seattle with his partner, Roger,
and their two dogs and two cats, has led bondage workshops for the
Chicago Hellfire Club, the 15 Association of San Francisco, and The
Eulenspeigel Society (TES) of NYC. He has learned his techniques
from a variety of players, but has JD and Dan of the Two
Knotty Boys to thank for the basic flat knots that he uses to
produce rope harnesses like the ones he will be teaching at BodyBound
Educational Weekend. DaddyDavid grew up on a small horse farm in
the Midwest and has three scholarly degrees in music. He is a
composer, cellist, and singer in addition to his skills as a flogging
and bondage SM Top.

Eddie, Portland

Eddie is a toppish switch who was quite active in the Seattle
community in the 1990s, presenting about a dozen classes there and
elsewhere on rope bondage, violent take-downs, and related topics.
These days, with family and profession as his priorities he doesn't get
out much any more, but looks forward to emerging briefly at BodyBound to
share his technical, brutal work.

ICE, Seattle

Ice Camins Bretts is a shipbuilding rigger and USCG Licensed Sailing
Master. Lifelong member of Amnesty International and the ACLU, Ice
is a big 'ol flirt and has been active in the BDSM, Leather and Queer
communities for over two decades.

James Mogul has been creating and photographing his own style of rope
bondage erotica since the mid nineties. He has been called
"one of the first prolific publishers of this new way of looking at
rope" by Bizarre Magazine, and Jane's Guide says "James Mogul
has been producing some of the most compelling bondage imagery in
Western culture...". Eros Guide calls his work "Exquisite
rope bondage. Some of the best we have ever seen." Published
in magazines like Secret, Hustler, Bizarre, Nugget and dozens of web
sites including his own Nawashibari.com and MogulImages.com, Mogul's
style combines raw sensuality with sublime beauty. His workshops
have been sought out by organizations such as Black Rose, National
Leather Association, BIO, the Wet Spot, Triskeli Guild, In the Woods and
Seattle men in Leather.

Max
lives in
Seattle
,
Washington
, and is active in
Seattle
's sex-positive community. While he enjoys and is proficient with
a number of BDSM arts, he especially likes bondage - for its own sake
and coupled with other SM activities.

Max’s
romance with rope and knots started in 1967 as a Boy Scout and a sailor.
In 1992 he discovered rope’s best and highest use - bondage - and
began tying up other people instead of inanimate objects.

Max
shares his love of bondage through his workshops. While his
personal bondage scenes tend towards suspension and relatively rigorous
bondage, he most enjoys teaching entry-level bondage workshops and
watching people learn to tie each other up.

After finishing fashion design school in 1998, Rose
Algren of Imp-of-Satan.com
spent many years costuming for some of
Seattle
’s bigger theaters, providing her with an excellent foundation in
garment making and tailoring before getting into fetish design. As
her interest in BDSM grew she had the opportunity to meet and
collaborate with HouseOfGord.com,
which effectively began her bondage modeling career and catsuit
engineering fetish.

Besides playing with some of the Northwest’s
noted rope tops, she has worked for numerous bondage sites including
House of Gord, NawaShibari.com,
BoundNDetermined.com,
and HogTied.com.
She paid attention during her years as a bottom and learned rope bondage
from the bottom up. To this day she en
j
oys being a switch, but detail oriented bondage is always a favorite.

Author of the book "The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage,"
Midori is an educator and writer of SM, fetish and human
sexuality. Midori travels the world presenting to university,
undergraduate clubs, SM clubs, and the general public. She teaches
to full house classes as well as tutors individuals and couples to help
them improve their communications kills towards deeper intimacy.
Her classed on Aural Sex: Seduction by Voice, Art of Feminine Dominance,
etc have sold out all over North America.

Raised in a feminist intellectual Tokyo household, she holds a degree
in psychology from the U.C. Berkley. She has written for many
publications and books including, "Beauty of Fetish,"
"Readings in Contemporary Sexuality," and many regular
magazine columns. Her work has appeared on HBO, BBC, Mademoiselle,
Penthouse, Playboy, Der Spiegel, Wired, British Esquire, Vogue, Surface
and many more. Among many recognitions, she is also the Pantheon
Leather Woman of the Year 2003, and Pantheon of Leather Northern
California Regional Activist Award 2005.

Enjoy her latest book, a collection of her essays titled "Wild Side
Sex: The Book of Kink," and "Foot and Shoe Worship"- a
little gem of a how-to book. Anticipated soon is a collection of
her erotic science fiction stories, "Master Han's Daughter: Tales
of Depraved NeoTokyo."

Midori is deeply passionate about rope bondage. She's been
playing with rope for over 20 years now. In her twenties she
apprenticed and learned from many including Kaye Buckley, Lou Duff, Mr.
Nagaike, and many others. She continues to learn from and exchange
ideas with fellow enthusiasts. She's considered an expert rigger
in the kink and non-kink community. Along with performing and
rigging difficult stage shows to crowds exceeding 3,000 at fetish galas
such as Skin Two Rubber Ball in London, North Bound Leather Ball in
Toronto and L'Erotica in Melbourne, Australia, she's syled rope for
fashion photographers Nick Knight for Vogue and Tiziano Magni for
WestEast magazine. Like so many accomplished artists, she's
mastered various forms of rope bondage, including complex suspensions,
Shibari (Japanese rope bondage) and more to create what has become
recognized as her unique blend of aesthetics and function, a dynamic art
of erotic rope bondage. She delights in teaching the art as well
as the practical realities of rope for great sex.

Bridgett Harrington is a fetishist, erotic
educator, Dominatrix, bondage model and artist, and tech geek, and in general is far too busy for her own good. Her two websites,
RopeLover.com and BlackBookArt.com, are her most active projects, and being a pervert who has been part of the SM community for
10 years everywhere from Seattle to London, England, keeps her hands full as well.
She has been hosting BodyBound, the Portland Bondage Enthusiasts
group, for 2 years- bringing presenters of bondage and bondage fans together for
play and learning. She has taught rope bondage internationally, and has
been a bondage/fetish/adult model and/or rigger for over 100 websites, numerous magazines and
live shows. She has had a love affair with bondage and macramé since
she was 6 years old, and isn't likely to stop any time soon.